1
|
Cristóbal-Perez EJ, Barrantes G, Cascante-Marín A, Hanson P, Picado B, Gamboa-Barrantes N, Rojas-Malavasi G, Zumbado MA, Madrigal-Brenes R, Martén-Rodríguez S, Quesada M, Fuchs EJ. Elevational and seasonal patterns of plant pollinator networks in two highland tropical ecosystems in Costa Rica. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0295258. [PMID: 38206918 PMCID: PMC10783733 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2023] [Accepted: 11/18/2023] [Indexed: 01/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Many plant species in high montane ecosystems rely on animal pollination for sexual reproduction, however, our understanding of plant-pollinator interactions in tropical montane habitats is still limited. We compared species diversity and composition of blooming plants and floral visitors, and the structure of plant-floral visitor networks between the Montane Forest and Paramo ecosystems in Costa Rica. We also studied the influence of seasonality on species composition and interaction structure. Given the severe climatic conditions experienced by organisms in habitats above treeline, we expected lower plant and insect richness, as well as less specialized and smaller pollination networks in the Paramo than in Montane Forest where climatic conditions are milder and understory plants are better protected. Accordingly, we found that blooming plants and floral visitor species richness was higher in the Montane Forest than in the Paramo, and in both ecosystems species richness of blooming plants and floral visitors was higher in the rainy season than in the dry season. Interaction networks in the Paramo were smaller and more nested, with lower levels of specialization and modularity than those in the Montane Forest, but there were no seasonal differences within either ecosystem. Beta diversity analyses indicate that differences between ecosystems are likely explained by species turnover, whereas within the Montane Forest differences between seasons are more likely explained by the rewiring of interactions. Results indicate that the decrease in species diversity with elevation affects network structure, increasing nestedness and reducing specialization and modularity.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- E. Jacob Cristóbal-Perez
- Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Ecología Tropical, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
- Laboratorio Nacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica, Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad Morelia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, Michoacán, México
- Laboratorio Binacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica, UNAM-UCR, México, Costa Rica
| | - Gilbert Barrantes
- Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Ecología Tropical, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
- Laboratorio Binacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica, UNAM-UCR, México, Costa Rica
- Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
| | - Alfredo Cascante-Marín
- Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Ecología Tropical, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
- Laboratorio Binacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica, UNAM-UCR, México, Costa Rica
- Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
| | - Paul Hanson
- Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Ecología Tropical, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
- Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
| | - Beatriz Picado
- Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Ecología Tropical, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
- Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
| | - Nicole Gamboa-Barrantes
- Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Ecología Tropical, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
- Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
| | - Geovanna Rojas-Malavasi
- Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Ecología Tropical, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
- Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
| | - Manuel A. Zumbado
- Investigador Colaborador, Museo de Zoología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
| | - Ruth Madrigal-Brenes
- Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Ecología Tropical, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
- Laboratorio Binacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica, UNAM-UCR, México, Costa Rica
- Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
| | - Silvana Martén-Rodríguez
- Laboratorio Nacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica, Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad Morelia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, Michoacán, México
- Laboratorio Binacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica, UNAM-UCR, México, Costa Rica
- Laboratorio de Ecología Evolutiva de Plantas, Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores–Morelia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, Michoacán, México
| | - Mauricio Quesada
- Laboratorio Nacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica, Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad Morelia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, Michoacán, México
- Laboratorio Binacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica, UNAM-UCR, México, Costa Rica
| | - Eric J. Fuchs
- Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Ecología Tropical, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
- Laboratorio Nacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica, Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad Morelia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, Michoacán, México
- Laboratorio Binacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica, UNAM-UCR, México, Costa Rica
- Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Wang B, Tong ZY, Xiong YZ, Wang XF, Scott Armbruster W, Huang SQ. The evolution of flower-pollinator trait matching, and why do some alpine gingers appear to be mismatched? ANNALS OF BOTANY 2023; 132:1073-1088. [PMID: 37751161 PMCID: PMC10809048 DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcad141] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2023] [Accepted: 09/20/2023] [Indexed: 09/27/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS Morphological matching between flower and pollinator traits has been documented in diverse plant lineages. Indeed, the matching of corolla tube length and pollinator tongue length has been cited repeatedly as a classic case of coevolution. However, there are many possible evolutionary routes to trait matching. Our aim here is both to review the evolutionary mechanisms of plant-pollinator trait matching and to investigate a specific case of trait matching/mismatching in a genus of alpine gingers. METHODS Roscoea gingers with long corolla tubes in the western Himalayas have pollinators with correspondingly long tongues, but the match between corolla tube and pollinator tongue lengths is not seen in the eastern Himalayas. Six floral traits were measured, including corolla tube depth, an internal trait controlling pollinator access to nectar. We calculated coefficients of variation and phylogenetically controlled correlation patterns of these traits in six Roscoea species in order to gain possible insights into stabilizing selection and modularization of these traits. KEY RESULTS The distal (nectar-containing) portion of the corolla tube exhibited lower coefficients of variations than did the basal portion. This is consistent with the hypothesis that pollinators mediate stabilizing selection on the distal, but not basal, portion of the corolla tube. This result, combined with phylogenetic data, suggests that the elevated liquid level of nectar in the distal tube evolved subsequent to dispersal into the eastern Himalayan region and loss of long-tongue pollinators. After accounting for phylogeny, corolla tube length, anther length, style length and labellum width were all intercorrelated. Corolla-tube depth was not part of this covariational module, however, suggesting separate adaptation to short-tongued pollinators. CONCLUSIONS The reduction in functional corolla tube depth in the Roscoea appears to be related to the loss of long-tongued pollinators associated with dispersal to the eastern Himalayas and pollination by short-tongued pollinators. The apparent mismatch between floral tubes and pollinator tongues is a case of cryptic trait matching between flowers and pollinators, underscoring the importance of combining floral anatomy with pollination ecology in assessing plant-pollinator trait matching.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Bo Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, The College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
| | - Ze-Yu Tong
- Institute of Evolution and Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
| | - Ying-Ze Xiong
- Institute of Evolution and Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
| | - Xiao-Fan Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, The College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
| | - W Scott Armbruster
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO12DY, UK
- Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA
| | - Shuang-Quan Huang
- Institute of Evolution and Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Wang B, Tong ZY, Xiong YZ, Wang XF, Armbruster WS, Huang SQ. Degree of style coiling is associated with corolla-tube length in the nectarless flowers of Roscoea schneideriana. PLANT DIVERSITY 2023; 45:748-751. [PMID: 38197006 PMCID: PMC10772087 DOI: 10.1016/j.pld.2022.12.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2022] [Revised: 12/07/2022] [Accepted: 12/08/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2024]
Abstract
The plant-pollinator 'arms race' model posits that a major driver of the evolution of elongated corollas in flowers is reciprocal selection for 'morphological fit' between pollinator-tongue length and access distance to nectar (usually corolla-tube length). Evidence for the pollinator-mediated selection on tube length and evolution of multiple, correlated floral traits remains inconclusive. To gain possible insights into the strength of stabilizing selection by assessing standing phenotypic variation, we measured a series of functionally important floral traits, including corolla tube length and 'effective' tube depth and degree of style coiling. We then calculated coefficients of variation (CV) for these traits in three field populations of R. schneideriana. Unlike in most long-tubed flowers, the bottom part of the corolla tube is completely occupied by the style, with no room for nectar. The length of this portion of the corolla tube was more variable (higher CV) than the upper part of the corolla tube, suggesting that functional tube depth was under stronger stabilizing selection. The degree of style coiling was negatively related to the corolla-tube length in all three populations of R. schneideriana, suggesting that there may be conflicting selection acting on style length and corolla-tube length, which are otherwise usually tightly correlated. Given the lack of nectar in the flowers of this species, the long corolla tubes and long styles may represent morphological holdovers from ancestors that were pollinated by long-tongued pollinators, as is still seen in related species in the western Himalayas.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Bo Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
| | - Ze-Yu Tong
- Institute of Evolution and Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
| | - Ying-Ze Xiong
- Institute of Evolution and Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
| | - Xiao-Fan Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
| | - W. Scott Armbruster
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO12DY, UK
- Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA
| | - Shuang-Quan Huang
- Institute of Evolution and Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Dellinger AS, Hamilton AM, Wessinger CA, Smith S. Opposing Patterns of Altitude-Driven Pollinator Turnover in the Tropical and Temperate Americas. Am Nat 2023; 202:152-165. [PMID: 37531276 PMCID: PMC7614872 DOI: 10.1086/725017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/04/2023]
Abstract
AbstractAbiotic factors (e.g., temperature, precipitation) vary markedly along elevational gradients and differentially affect major groups of pollinators. Ectothermic bees, for example, are impeded in visiting flowers by cold and rainy conditions common at high elevations, while endothermic hummingbirds may continue foraging under such conditions. Despite the possibly far-reaching effects of the abiotic environment on plant-pollinator interactions, we know little about how these factors play out at broad ecogeographic scales. We address this knowledge gap by investigating how pollination systems vary across elevations in 26 plant clades from the Americas. Specifically, we explore Cruden's 1972 hypothesis that the harsh montane environment drives a turnover from insect to vertebrate pollination at higher elevations. We compared the elevational distribution and bioclimatic attributes for a total of 2,232 flowering plants and found that Cruden's hypothesis holds only in the tropics. Above 30°N and below 30°S, plants pollinated by vertebrates (mostly hummingbirds) tend to occur at lower elevations than those pollinated by insects. We hypothesize that this latitudinal transition is due to the distribution of moist, forested habitats favored by vertebrate pollinators, which are common at high elevations in the tropics but not in the temperate Americas.
Collapse
|
5
|
Ashokan A, Leong-Škorničková J, Suksathan P, Newman M, Kress WJ, Gowda V. Floral evolution and pollinator diversification in Hedychium: Revisiting Darwin's predictions using an integrative taxonomic approach. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 2022; 109:1410-1427. [PMID: 35862825 DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.16039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2021] [Revised: 06/08/2022] [Accepted: 06/22/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
PREMISE Hedychium J. Koenig (Zingiberaceae) is endemic to the Indo-Malayan Realm and is known for its colorful and fragrant flowers. Historically, two different pollination syndromes characterize Hedychium: diurnal or bird pollination, and nocturnal or moth pollination. In this study, we aim to understand the evolution of nocturnal and diurnal flowers, and to test its putative association with lineage diversification in Hedychium. METHODS A molecular tree of Hedychium was used as a scaffold upon which we estimated ancestral character states, phylogenetic signals, and correlations for certain categorical and continuous floral traits. Furthermore, we used phylomorphospace and trait-dependent diversification rate estimation analyses to understand phenotypic evolution and associated lineage diversification in Hedychium. RESULTS Although floral color and size lacked any association with specific pollinators, white or pale flowers were most common in the early branching clades when compared to bright-colored flowers, which were more widely represented in the most-derived clade IV. Five categorical and two continuous characters were identified to have informative evolutionary patterns, which also emphasized that ecology may have played a critical role in the diversification of Hedychium. CONCLUSIONS From our phylogenetic analyses and ecological observations, we conclude that specializations in pollinator interactions are rare in the hyperdiverse clade IV, thus challenging the role of both moth-specialization and bird-specialization as central factors in the diversification of Hedychium. However, our results also suggest that clade III (predominantly island clade) may show specializations, and future studies should investigate ecological and pollinator interactions, along with inclusion of new traits such as floral fragrance and anthesis time.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ajith Ashokan
- Tropical Ecology and Evolution (TrEE) Lab, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, 462066, India
| | - Jana Leong-Škorničková
- Research & Conservation branch, Singapore Botanic Gardens, 1 Cluny Road, 259569, Singapore
| | - Piyakaset Suksathan
- Herbarium (QBG), Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden, P. O. Box 7, Mae Rim, Chiang Mai, 50180, Thailand
| | - Mark Newman
- Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR, Scotland, United Kingdom
| | - W John Kress
- Department of Botany, MRC-166, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, P. O. Box 37012, Washington, DC, 20013-7012, United States
| | - Vinita Gowda
- Tropical Ecology and Evolution (TrEE) Lab, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, 462066, India
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Miladin JR, Steven JC, Collar DC. A Comparative Approach to Understanding Floral Adaptation to Climate and Pollinators During Diversification in European and Mediterranean Silene. Integr Comp Biol 2022; 62:icac118. [PMID: 35816463 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icac118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Pollinator selection on floral traits is a well-studied phenomenon, but less is known about the influence of climate on this species interaction. Floral trait evolution could be a result of both adaptation to climate and pollinator-mediated selection. In addition, climate may also determine pollinator communities, leading to an indirect influence of climate on floral traits. In this study, we present evidence of both direct and indirect effects of climate on plant morphology through a phylogenetic comparative analysis of the relationships between climate, pollinators, and morphology in 89 European and Mediterranean Silene species. Climate directly influences vegetative morphology, where both leaf size and internode length were found to be smaller in habitats that are warmer in the driest quarter of the year and that have more precipitation in the coldest quarter of the year. Similarly, flower size was directly influenced by climate, where smaller calyxes were also associated with habitats that are warmer in the driest quarter of the year. These results suggest that reduced leaf and flower size promote water conservation in species that occupy arid climates. Floral traits also evolved in response to pollinators, with elongated calyxes associated with nocturnal pollination, though we also found evidence that climate influences pollinator distribution. Nocturnal pollinators of Silene are found in habitats that have more temperature evenness across seasons than diurnal pollinators. Correspondingly, nocturnally-pollinated Silene are more likely to occur in habitats that have lower daily temperature fluctuation and more temperature evenness across seasons. Altogether these results show that climate can directly influence vegetative and floral morphology, but it can also affect pollinator distribution, which in turn drives floral adaptation. Our study therefore suggests that climate mediates the influence of species interactions on trait evolution by imposing direct selective demands on floral phenotypes and by determining the pollinator community that imposes its own selective demands on flowers.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jenna R Miladin
- Avenue of the Arts, Department of Organismal and Environmental Biology, Christopher Newport University, Newport News, Virginia 23606
| | - Janet C Steven
- Avenue of the Arts, Department of Organismal and Environmental Biology, Christopher Newport University, Newport News, Virginia 23606
| | - David C Collar
- Avenue of the Arts, Department of Organismal and Environmental Biology, Christopher Newport University, Newport News, Virginia 23606
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Klomberg Y, Tropek R, Mertens JEJ, Kobe IN, Hodeček J, Raška J, Fominka NT, Souto-Vilarós D, Janečková P, Janeček Š. Spatiotemporal variation in the role of floral traits in shaping tropical plant-pollinator interactions. Ecol Lett 2022; 25:839-850. [PMID: 35006639 DOI: 10.1111/ele.13958] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2021] [Revised: 06/09/2021] [Accepted: 12/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
The pollination syndrome hypothesis predicts that plants pollinated by the same pollinator group bear convergent combinations of specific floral functional traits. Nevertheless, some studies have shown that these combinations predict pollinators with relatively low accuracy. This discrepancy may be caused by changes in the importance of specific floral traits for different pollinator groups and under different environmental conditions. To explore this, we studied pollination systems and floral traits along an elevational gradient on Mount Cameroon during wet and dry seasons. Using Random Forest (Machine Learning) models, allowing the ranking of traits by their relative importance, we demonstrated that some floral traits are more important than others for pollinators. However, the distribution and importance of traits vary under different environmental conditions. Our results imply the need to improve our trait-based understanding of plant-pollinator interactions to better inform the debate surrounding the pollination syndrome hypothesis.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yannick Klomberg
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czechia.,Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Robert Tropek
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czechia.,Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czechia
| | - Jan E J Mertens
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czechia
| | - Ishmeal N Kobe
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czechia
| | - Jiří Hodeček
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czechia.,Swiss Human Institute of Forensic Taphonomy, University Centre of Legal Medicine Lausanne-Geneva, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Jan Raška
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czechia
| | - Nestoral T Fominka
- Department of Zoology and Animal Physiology, Faculty of Science, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon
| | | | - Petra Janečková
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czechia
| | - Štěpán Janeček
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czechia
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Santos‐Gómez SM, Figueroa‐Castro DM, Castañeda‐Posadas C. Are floral traits good predictors of effective pollinators? A test of pollination syndromes. Ecol Res 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/1440-1703.12285] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Samantha Maite Santos‐Gómez
- Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla Puebla Mexico
- Maestría en Ciencias Biológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla Puebla Mexico
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
9
|
Paudel BR, Shrestha M, Burd M, Li QJ. Dual mechanisms of autonomous selfing in Roscoea nepalensis (Zingiberaceae). Ecology 2021; 102:e03337. [PMID: 33710635 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3337] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2020] [Revised: 12/17/2020] [Accepted: 01/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Babu Ram Paudel
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of Plant Reproductive Adaption and Evolutionary Ecology, Yunnan University, Kunming, China.,Laboratory of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resources in Yunnan, Yunnan University, Kunming, China.,Department of Botany, Prithvi Narayan Campus, Tribhuvan University, Pokhara, Nepal
| | - Mani Shrestha
- School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.,Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
| | - Martin Burd
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Qing-Jun Li
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of Plant Reproductive Adaption and Evolutionary Ecology, Yunnan University, Kunming, China.,Laboratory of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resources in Yunnan, Yunnan University, Kunming, China
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Paudel BR, Li QJ. Functional implications of the specialized staminal appendages in alpine ginger (Roscoea spp.: Zingiberaceae). J Evol Biol 2020; 33:1265-1275. [PMID: 32627242 DOI: 10.1111/jeb.13670] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2019] [Revised: 06/22/2020] [Accepted: 06/23/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Floral organs are widely believed to enhance the pollination and reproductive success of angiosperms. However, the functional implication of some floral structures is still unknown. In this study, we explored the functional role of staminal appendages on male and female reproductive success of Himalayan Roscoea spp. and tested if their function differed between species with biotic pollination and autonomous selfing. Phenotypic manipulation is a powerful approach to test the functional effect of a particular trait on plant fitness. We compared various proxies of pollination success between intact flowers and flowers with manually excised staminal appendages. We found that the rate of visitation did not differ between intact and manipulated flowers. Our results revealed that in outcrossing Roscoea spp., the staminal appendages act as triggering devices to facilitate pollen release and deposition and also to manipulate the foraging position of pollinators to ensure both male and female reproductive success. In contrast, in autonomously selfing Roscoea spp., the removal of staminal appendages did not affect any aspect of pollination processes. Our results suggest that the staminal appendages are an integral component of outcrossing in Roscoea spp. and are maintained by selection pressure through both male and female reproductive success. This study provides important insights on how variation in breeding systems can provoke changes in the structure and function of floral organs among congeners.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Babu Ram Paudel
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of Plant Reproductive Adaption and Evolutionary Ecology, Yunnan University, Kunming, China.,Laboratory of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resources in Yunnan, Yunnan University, Yunnan, China.,Department of Botany, Prithvi Narayan Campus, Tribhuvan University, Pokhara, Nepal
| | - Qing-Jun Li
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of Plant Reproductive Adaption and Evolutionary Ecology, Yunnan University, Kunming, China.,Laboratory of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resources in Yunnan, Yunnan University, Yunnan, China
| |
Collapse
|